The invention relates to the rapid analysis of analyte solutions.
Chromatographic methods can be used to separate components in a sample mixture to determine identity and quantity of each component in the sample. Chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques that are typically used to analyze complex mixtures include gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, thin layer chromatography, electrophoresis, and capillary electrophoresis. These techniques are relatively time consuming, since they require some degree of separation of the components in order to identify and quantify them.
Complex chromatographic patterns have been analyzed using principal component regression analysis, as described, for example, in Jellum, et al. Journal of Pharm. Biomed. Analysis, 9(8):663-669 (1991). Other processing techniques have been used to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in chromatograms. See, for example, Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,536.